RUMFORD — The Select Board voted 3-1 in favor of an application for large scale groundwater extraction by the Rumford Water District (RWD), during a public hearing held on Oct. 17. Frank DiConzo voted against and Theresa Sax was absent.
At a previous meeting on May 14th, Andy Hamilton of Eaton Peabody, senior legal counsel for the water district, said RWD is proposing to withdraw and sell up to 75 million gallons per year of spring water to Blue Triton Brands, Inc., dba Poland Spring Bottling Company.
The RWD property is at the bottom of the Ellis River Watershed, which is 164.2 square miles. The entire watershed empties into the Ellis River that flows through Andover.
Hamilton said the Borehole #4 project is a single-well addition to an existing project that includes Boreholes 1 and 2, which have been in place since 2019. The original agreement between Poland Spring and the RWD has been in place since PUC approval in June of 2018.
Daniel Flagg, P.E., Engineering Consultant for Wright-Pierce, said, “The groundwater extraction permit that’s currently been in operation at the Rumford Water District parallels the DEP permit.
The addition of Borehole #4 at 75 million gallons per year to that existing permitted 158 million gallons per year, which has been the permitted yearly amount annually since under the current operation of 2017.
DEP has reviewed this data in detail and confirmed that the addition of 75 million gallons per year, they don’t see any adverse impact to that, provided that the monitoring requirements the DEP requires of the permit are followed.
Matt Reynolds, environmental hydrogeologist with Drumlin Environmental LLC of Portland, added that the total volume of all the water being extracted is 5 percent of the aquifer’s daily river flow.
Town Manager George O’Keefe said the RWD is proposing to modify the ability and the amount of water that Poland Spring can purchase from them. “Poland Springs doesn’t have rights to the water. They have the ability to purchase water.”
He added that the amount drawn will change from 158 million gallons to 233 million gallons, and that is the maximum. O’Keefe said the rough annual total withdrawn is less than what is permitted.
O’Keefe said the public needs to understand that the permit is being adhered to and there aren’t any regulatory concerns or issues with the amount of water that’s being taken out.
Resident Brie Weisman of Rumford asked if Rumford was getting value for the price the water district is setting for the water.
O’Keefe responded, “I believe we are. Some people would say we should get more money and should attempted to make a stronger economic bargain with the company, and that is in the hands of the trustees of the water district and I think they do that in a very effective way.”
He noted that until Poland Spring engaged in a purchase and sale agreement with the Rumford Water District, “our water utility here was financially insolvent.”
RWD Supt. John Halacy said on May 14th that from April 2019 to now, the lease rental was $12,000 a month and the total is $775,298 that they’ve received to date. In addition, Poland Spring made a capital contribution of $160,000 towards the booster station that RWD put on top of Falls Hill.
He said, “To date, all of those, including the water purchase, have provided over $1.67 million to the district to stabilize our water rates for our customers, and provided substantial improvements out of cash flow without the need for rate increases for taking out loans and paying interest.”
Halacy said RWD has not raised its water rates since 2010.
The district has been able invest in its system, including putting in necessary replacements of sections of water main that’s been around since the early 1900s.
Halacy added, “We’ve been able to fund $1,282,532 in repairs — replacements of mains, a new booster station, a new well at Scotty’s — all these jobs were funded out of pocket due to this revenue…Otherwise, we would have had to take out loans, pay interest and new rate increases. None were needed.”
O’Keefe noted, “Our water resource belongs to us, through the Rumford Water District, and will continue to belong to us. I would never support any project which would take the water resource from us in an ownership sense.”
He said the regulatory context of this particular type of economic activity is quite strong. “In fact, groundwater extraction in Maine is probably better protected, I believe, here, than anywhere else in the country. There’s two reasons for that. One, Maine DEP is actually a very solid environmental regulator. The second reason is local control. And that differs than in some places where you may have groundwater extraction that takes place on state or federal lands, or on tribal lands.”
O’Keefe said the relationship between Poland Spring and the county is very much controlled by, in most cases, the local board or local government of some kind. “So that makes the relationship very different and we’re able to hold public hearings like this. Because this activity is so carefully regulated and protected, I am comfortable with it as being in the public interest. I think all of you should know that. It is my job to protect the public interest. It is not my job to work for large corporations or for their economic benefit.”
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